Verbal meanderings about good books, the creative process and how it applies to so much of what we do, jewelry design--what inspires me, the stones I like, great recipes from my collection, gardening, Ireland and travel, and anything else that comes to mind.

Saturday, January 29, 2011

Francis DeLuca breaks everything he touches–crockery, his mother, and finally himself. Frank is dead, a ghost imprisoned in a light fixture, able to materialize only when that light is turned on. He’s been dead a quarter century, the victim of a gunshot during a robbery turned bad, and he stays in the bedroom in his own kind of purgatory.

Camellia Stafford has come home to the house she grew up in, to bury her father and to confront her feelings for Frank. For twenty years, she’s shared her room with Frank, its former tenant. Over the years, they’ve gone from grudging friendship to love. Cam has conversed, fought, pleaded with him...and loved him. And Frank has admitted loving her, but he’s dead. He can’t do anything to change that, and Cam is lonely and frustrated.

Enter neighbor Bradley Mitchum, a hot-looking advertising executive who has carried a torch for Cam since she was a teenager. Cam falls fast for Brad, a generous man with issues. As their passion develops, it causes more than a little consternation from Frank who desperately wants her himself.

Paramour is a stunning debut novel by Margaret Ethridge, and I predict a bright future for this accomplished writer.

I’m not a reader of paranormal as I usually don’t like the woo-woo parts or the unrealistic portals, but Ms. Ethridge’s realistic setting and sassy dialogue sucked me right into the story and kept me there throughout. Cam is delightful, and Brad is a jewel, but Frank stole my heart with his macho yet tender image. Each of these three characters shows growth, essential, in my opinion, for creating memorable characters. I guarantee you won’t be able to put this book down. Everything about Paramour–the setting, the dialogue, the pacing and the hot sexy scenes, and most of all three of the most interesting characters you could want to meet plus a surprise ending–will keep this story in your mind long after the final page is turned.